Opinion: EDC needs to fund ambulance service
By Gareth Harris
The Lake Valley Fire Protection District is one of two members of the California Tahoe Emergency Services Operations Authority (JPA). The JPA has a contract with the county of El Dorado to provide advanced life support ambulance services to the California side of the South Shore of Lake Tahoe as well as a portion of Alpine County. The JPA has been providing advanced life support services under two different contracts with the county since 2001.
Gareth Harris
The JPA operates three staffed and two reserve ambulances out of fire stations strategically located throughout the South Shore. The city of South Lake Tahoe staffs two ambulances and Lake Valley Fire District staffs one ambulance 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. In addition, Lake Valley also cross-staffs a reserve ambulance with engine company personnel that is available whenever the three-staffed ambulances are committed to calls for service. Both fire departments have the depth and ability to recall off duty personnel to staff additional reserve ambulances as needed or for planned high call volume events such as New Year’s Eve or July 4 celebrations.
Since the inception of fire department-based delivery of emergency medical services in 2001, the county of El Dorado has compensated the JPA for providing these services to the citizens and visitors of the South Shore. The level of compensation is the key issue at hand since the JPA has always exceeded all of the performance criteria required by the county. Since implementation of the first contract, the level of compensation by the county has only been enough to provide for half of the staffing required of the three ambulances. The city of South Lake Tahoe and the Lake Valley Fire Protection District have both paid for the other half of the required ambulance staffing and continue to do so daily.
The other significant issue with the insufficient level of compensation by the county to the JPA is the requirement for the JPA to continuously upgrade and replace its capital assets, including four-wheel drive ambulances and medical equipment such as cardiac monitors. The level of compensation is simply not enough to sustain the JPA’s capital replacement needs over the long term. Over the course of the last four years, the JPA has reduced its reserves by purchasing required capital equipment to the point that the reserves are becoming dangerously low.
Both the city of South Lake Tahoe and the Lake Valley Fire Protection District take a significant amount of pride in the exceptional level of care provided to our constituents and visitors. Our fire department-based EMS delivery system has many advantages over other options. These advantages include advanced life support paramedic certified personnel on engine companies, depth and ability to staff up reserve ambulances, and a proven history of 14 years of excellence in the delivery of advanced life support services to the communities we proudly serve.
The JPA is currently governed by a Board of Directors made up of two City Council and two fire district board members. The JPA board of directors has already formally requested that the county of El Dorado increase the compensation to a level that would fully fund the staffing and capital replacement needs of the JPA. What we are asking for is both reasonable and consistent with what the county of El Dorado is currently compensating the JPA that provides EMS services to the West Slope of the county.
The Lake Valley Fire Protection District wants passionately to continue to provide the highest level of emergency medical services to the community we proudly serve. We believe that the current fire service-based partnership is working very well and has done so for the past 14 years. The fire district urges the county of El Dorado to recognize the excellent level of care the JPA provides, and increase the level of compensation to the appropriate level to ensure sustainability for the future of EMS delivery services in the South Shore.
Gareth Harris is fire chief for Lake Valley Fire Protection District.
Maybe we need a private ambulance service that knows how to work within a budget and also knows that if it doesn’t do what it promises, it will be fired.
Is it really necessary to have an ambulance respond to virtually every fire call, whether needed or not, and vice versa?
I do not recall such duplication when Lake Tahoe Ambulance had the area’s ambulance contract some years ago.
Yeah, you dont want to pay for a service…until you need it, then the complaint changes course and the verbal barrage becomes aimed at the ambulances not being there when YOU need it. Its like fire fighters. They may not be fighting fires 100% of the time but when the call goes out that they are needed and they are ready to go, thats a good thing. You cant have it both ways.
Bats, you’re assuming again. . .
A private ambulance service WOULD be paid for. Look into it, most big cities have them.
And believe me, if you get an ambulance ride now, it ain’t free. You will be billed.
At the February 3rd City Council meeting there was a very informative presentation on this very topic which was listed under NEW BUSINESS ITEM (C)-PRESENTATION REGARDING THE CAL TAHOE JOINT POWERS AUTHORITY (CALTAHOE JPA). I highly recommend watching this to actually become informed on this rather than discharging uninformed speculation. It was quite revealing just what EDC doesn’t do for the South Shore area. The link to the City Council’s February 3rd meeting video is as follows and then click the tab under New Business Item (c).
http://slt.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=6&clip_id=727
Tahoe used to have a private ambulance company. We don’t any more for several reasons.
Comparing South Lake Tahoe to a heavily populated urban area is not reasonable.
As government waste becomes more problematic, government agencies will be at each others’ throats more and more.
Just some random thoughts on the subject.
Chief Harris is not the guy that should be in charge of anything. While he talks the talk he does not walk the walk. Word on the street things aren’t that great out at the old Lake Valley Fire. His own people have thrown him under the bus with a 100% vote of “No Confidence”. While that usually leads down the road to someone getting fired, Lake Valleys Board is secretly continuing forward expecting change from their Chief who is too arrogant to change his ways. I’ve also heard that Lake Valley is through doing the plan checks for fire protection systems. If this is true it will probably be turned over to the Eldorado County Building Department. This will be a relief to anyone that has done business with Harris and his minion JP. With very little research I found some relatively disturbing background for Chief Harris. Check out the Placerville Mountain Democrat July 7 2014 and the Half Moon Bay review April 1 2004. Apparently $150,000.00 harassment settlements and running a side business selling radios from the Fire Station are something you overlook on a background check. This ambulance contract issue probably does need to be addressed. Just find someone other than Chief Harris to do the negotiating. Maybe Lake Valley should check their rest rooms for hidden cameras. I
There was a privatetly owned amubulance company here years ago. Ownned and operated by the Bush family. They got squeezed out for whatever reasons and the fire departments took over. Least ways thats how I recall it, I could be wrong. They lived and operated there business at the Y nearby where U-Haul is now.
Don’t call the fire house paramedics unless you think it’s something really serious. They do’nt come cheap! A simple call will cost you $300 dollars plus even if there with you for just a few minutes.
Take care, OLS
OLS, my recollection of their departure was that they had to stay within their limited budget. And quality of service suffered. One of them had totally stopped speaking to me by the time they closed shop.
money money money ! It’s all about the money.during my 30 plus years here in Tahoe I had one occasion to have the LVFD show up to a chimney fire.This was back when chief “Hugh” held the reins and what a great group of firemen !!Fortunately the fire had burned itself out by the time they got to the house, in less than 5 minutes !!
And guess what no charge !!
Unfortunately I had cause to ride in the ambulance at a future time and guess what received a bill for $600 for the 10 minute ride to Barton.
Now we all pay property taxes and fund the fire department , and also the ambulance ,so what gives ?? We get a double whammy if we have to use the service that we are already funding.Surly we could have at least one freebie every 10 years or so ??
What say you folks.??
With the charges for using the ambulance in effect why does this service need to be funded ? Or is it to fund the firemen paramedics ?
Yes, Calling the fire department ambulance will cost you over and above what you already pay for in property taxes. If you don’t pay? It’s tacked onto your property tax then you go into collection and eventually lose your house.
So that’s how it works. Either pay twice thru taxes and a seperate bill from the collection agency or find yourself living in the meadow while your house goes up for auction. Sweet dreams! OLS
Wonder what happens when tourists and skiers don’t pay their $600 ambulance bills.
There seems to be a great deal of speculation on how the whole Fire Department EMS came about and blame placed on the fire departments without looking at facts. El Dorado County is responsible for all EMS operations within the County. Lake Tahoe Ambulance had difficulties in the past meeting response timelines in getting to patients according to El Dorado County, so the County elected to exercise its right and open up an RFP (Request for proposal) process to select an ambulance company that would meet standards set by the County. Any company that wanted to could apply to the selection process run by the County including Lake Tahoe Ambulance. In the end El Dorado County selected the JPA as the best option out of several proposals. The County sets the billing rates for service and handles the collections. The ambulance provider is paid a flat contract rate regardless of the number of patients it transports and all of the associated operational cost. As cost for new ambulances, medical supplies, salaries and such continue to escalate each year the contract reimbursement from the County does not. There is a lot of information on how this whole ambulance thing operates at http://www.edcgov.us/EMS/
In the area I work we also do a rfp for ambulance service. We as the fire district actually compete with private ambulance service for these contracts. The bid is based on orice and level of service. It would be interesting to see if the jpa actually proposed to do the service for this amount of money that they are now complaining about. I think there is info being left out regarding how the numbers came to be. Also not being talked about is the level of service on the fire side if there was no ambulance contract. Part of this sounds like some fall out for the not passed ballot measure. Hopefully someone brings the rest of the info forward